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I have a 2004 Tribute fully loaded and was somewhat surprised at the road noise. I have removed all door panel and sprayed sound deadening material on the inside of the door panels and then put high density sound deadening material over the inside of the panel prior to replacing the stock material. All seats were removed and more high density material installed on all the floor surfaces (two layers). but be careful when removing the seats because of the air bags. Disconnect battery and wait 5 minutes prior to removing front seats. The Tribute also received a full heavy undercoating. A lot of work and it helped a great deal. However, most of the noise that remains is due to the horrible Continental tires that came with it. Best two choices for replacement: The new Goodyear (expensive) or Bridgestone. Over certain road surfaces my Mazda is very quiet, but when you hit concrete you can really tell regarding the Continentals. All of the sound deadening was a lot of work, but worth it. Remember, most of the noise comes from the crummy Continentals.

just back from driving 900 miles in 3 days. completely agree about the noise of the continental tires. you don't have to worry about falling asleep at the wheel with them. they do ride ok, although kind of grainy.

Right you are about the tires. The first thing I did on my new '06 hybrid was lose the tires. I chose Goodyear Fortera's. The road noise was only diminished a little; mainly because they're still SUV tires; wide tread and all. But bumps in the road are softened a lot.

I recently bought an '06 Escape XLT with 55K miles on it. I like about everything about this car except the road noise. My old '00 Silverado 1500 mud tires, etc. with a ton of miles rides like a Cadillac compared to the Escape when it comes to road noise. I've been reading the other posts and see where part of my problem may be the Continental tires on it. Since they only have about 4K on them I hate to just toss them out, but I'm willing to do so if someone will tell me how much doing so is going to quiet the darn thing down. 50% ? 80% ? Is there such a thing as noise ratings like the temperature and mileage ratings tires have ? This is strictly a drive around town and on highway trips car. Are there some kind of just street tires that would be super quiet ?Also, I'm taking it in for a 60K mile scheduled checkup in a week or so. The owners manual says to check wheel ends for noise but my local certified Ford mechanic says he has no idea that is referring to. What the heck is a wheel end ?My e-mail is ptown86368@aol.com if anyone has any ideas on these two things I'd really appreciate you helping me out.

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I hate to burst your bubble, but 1st generation Escapes are noisy no matter what brand tires you put on them. Continentals are indeed pieces of crap and you may be able to subside the road noise a bit going with a different tire. However, you will always be able to hear in my opinion excesive road noise and more so when ever any tire wears out. Sorry. We have an 04 Limited 4x4 and we replaced the Craptinentals with a set of Goodyear Wrangler RS and the noise was about 50-60% better...still to noisy for my taste. This is one of the things Ford addressed on the 2nd gen Escapes (current).

I have the same problem with front end road noise. Got rid og the Contintals @ 25kInstalled 4 Coopers. The road noise was greatly reduced. Now @ 40k miles IT"SBack. The noise is as bad as before. The Coopers aren't evan worn! I'm not aboutto replace the tires again. I will not buy another Escape!

I love my Escape. Bought a 2005 XLT about 2 years ago "used" but in great shape. Keep up on regular maintenance and just recently replaced the brakes. I have never been bothered by any noises and then last week it was like something was loose in the front end. When driving slow I could here a low clunk clunk clunk. Took it to my long time and trusted mechanic and it was the suspension....more specifically the "linkage". Replaced both sides for 40 bucks a side and no more clunk clunk clunk. It is the perfect little truck for me and my husband is happy about that cause I never want to drive his lol